Israel weighs indictment of Sharon

JERUSALEM — Israel’s chief prosecutor has drafted an indictment against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a long-running corruption scandal that could drive him from office, Israel’s Channel 2 television said yesterday.

The report said State Attorney Edna Arbel plans to submit the charge sheet within days to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who will make the final decision on whether to put the 76-year-old leader on trial.

Channel 2 said it could take Mr. Mazuz months to decide whether to accept Mrs. Arbel’s recommendations, adding to a cloud of political uncertainty that has enveloped Mr. Sharon.

A spokesman for the Justice Ministry, which represents both the state attorney and the attorney general, declined to comment on the report. Mr. Sharon’s office also had no comment.

Mr. Sharon’s attorney, Avigdor Klagsbald, was quoted by Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper on its Web site as saying the chief prosecutor’s draft was a “media-manipulation attempt.”

“The state is conducting a system of unfair leaks against the prime minister in an attempt to put pressure on public opinion and the opinion of the attorney general, who is the sole authority to decide whether to submit an indictment,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Israel Radio quoted sources in the prime minister’s office as saying Mr. Sharon would only comment on the case when Mr. Mazuz finally decided about the indictment.

Mrs. Arbel’s draft concluded there were sufficient grounds to charge Mr. Sharon with bribery in connection with a real estate deal involving his son, Gilad, and land developer David Appel, a stalwart of the prime minister’s Likud Party, the report said.

The latest development catches Mr. Sharon during a stormy time while he tries to win support from the United States and from his own Cabinet for his plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and some in the West Bank.

There was no immediate indication whether the reported draft indictment would delay Mr. Sharon’s planned trip to Washington on April 14 to meet with President Bush regarding his disengagement plan.

Palestinians fear an Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip would mask an attempt by Mr. Sharon to annex settlements in the West Bank, denying them the viable state they seek.

Prosecutors say Mr. Appel hired Gilad Sharon in 1999 and paid him large sums to persuade his father, then foreign minister, to promote real estate deals, including a Greek island resort that was never built.

Mr. Sharon has in the past denied any wrongdoing. Mr. Appel, who was charged in January with trying to bribe Mr. Sharon in the 1990s, also denies the charges against him. Mr. Appel’s indictment did not cite any evidence that Mr. Sharon knowingly accepted money to grant political favors.

Some Cabinet ministers from the centrist Shinui party, Mr. Sharon’s largest coalition partner, have called on the prime minister to suspend himself if the attorney general decides to indict him, Israeli media reported after the Channel 2 report.

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